Electoral Chairs’ Seminars – February 13th

Inclusive Redistribution and Perceptions of Membership: A Cross-National Comparison

Allison Harell – Professor at UQAM

Immigrants tend to be seen as less deserving of welfare benefits than native-born citizens, but little consensus exists to explain this finding or how to build greater public support for more inclusive policies. New work on citizens perceptions of the membership commitment of immigrants shows they are powerfully tied to redistribution. This study provides the first systematic test of this in the comparative setting using an original seven country survey conducted in 2021-2022 to explore perceptions of immigrants’ membership in the host society in seven liberal democracies and their effect on public support for general and inclusive redistribution. The study provides the first comparative test of the powerful relationship between perceptions of shared membership and support for redistribution and shows that immigrants systematically suffer a “membership penalty” within host societies across a wide range of states with different citizenship and welfare regimes with important consequences for welfare state support.

This content has been updated on 8 February 2023 at 15 h 06 min.